The melody of speech carries meaning beyond the words. Intonation is the pattern of pitch variation over phrases and sentences that signals sentence type, focus, attitude, and discourse structure.

Rising contours often mark yes-no questions in English; falling contours commonly end statements. Languages differ in their intonational inventories and in how pitch interacts with word stress. Intonation can change pragmatic interpretation even when segmental content stays fixed.

Transcription systems label pitch accents and boundary tones for research. Language teaching increasingly addresses intonation for intelligibility and pragmatic fit. Misplaced pitch peaks can make fluent speakers sound abrupt or uncertain.

• Meaningful pitch pattern across phrases
• Signals questions, focus, and attitude
• Language-specific in contour inventory
• Studied with specialized transcription systems